Strategies of inclusion: Addressee(s) in triadic exchanges

Abstract

In keeping with Goffman's approach of examining the interactional practices by which participants constitute a particular participation framework at any given moment, I analyze the instantiations of two different types of addressees in multi-party contexts. Using videotaped and audiotaped data, I show that at particular moments in the interaction, a speaker can call attention to a particular participation framework by initiating what I call triadic exchanges: by addressing more than one type of addressee at once. This paper analyzes in detail specific examples of triadic exchanges to: 1) specify the verbal and non-verbal cues by which they can be identified, and 2) demonstrate how this interactional practice is used as a strategy by participants to include other co-present participants in interaction. In this way, the speaker not only engages in an exchange with one addressee or party, but is able to include multiple addressees and call upon other co-present participants to actively participate in the communicative act that is being performed. The results of a detailed analysis show that the complexities of the third-party hearer have been underestimated in interactional analysis and that attention to participation frameworks can delineate types of interactions that serve interesting functions in multi-party contexts